Gay support urged for porn petitions

The controversial law has been put through consultation by the Home Office after a campaign from family and friends of Jane Longhurst who was murdered in 2003 by a violent porn addict

Different factions of the gay community are being urged to support one of two differing petitions on a new law regarding “violent pornography.”

The Criminal Justice Bill, unveiled in last month’s Queen’s Speech, would ban the possession of online and printed porn depicting “scenes of extreme sexual violence,” a move opposed by some activists who claim the law is too vague and could lead to innocent people being prosecuted despite consenting to activities.

The controversial law has been put through consultation by the Home Office after a campaign from family and friends of Jane Longhurst who was murdered in 2003 by a violent porn addict.

One petition to the Prime Minister is calling for the repeal of the Bill, it currently has nearly 900 signatures.

It claims, “This proposed law would create a Thought Crime making it illegal to possess “sexual images” that, in the subjective opinion of members of the Home Office, show activities ‘liable to cause serious injury or death’ even if the participants were consenting adult actors.

Louise Morris, a member of the bondage, domination and sadomasochistic (BDSM)

community, told PinkNews.co.uk: “I could well be an innocent victim of this new bill if it is made law.

“The government do not recognise an image as being that of consensual “play,” all they see is a crime that could and will create serious harm or death. They want to dictate what my sexuality is and how I should be doing things.

“I know that the gay community themselves had a battle with acceptance not so long ago, and you all fought it and gained a huge amount of respect from everyone because you are open, you showed that your sexuality was indeed yours.”

However, far more support appears to have been generated for a petition calling for the law to be extended to 18 rated pornographic material.

The petition, launched by broadcasting watchdog Mediawatch, and signed by over a thousand people, states, “We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to steadfastly proceed with plans announced in the Queen’s Speech to make possession of extreme pornography illegal and to include a much wider range of pornographic imagery, such as R18 material, within the scope of the Criminal Justice Bill.

“In 1972 the late Lord Denning, former Master of the Rolls, said that the law against pornography had misfired: He said: ‘Much that is obscene has escaped the reach of the law.’

“The pornography industry has exploited to the full a law that is inherently flawed and has failed to fulfil the intention of Parliament in the 1959 Act to strengthen the criminal law. It has had the opposite effect.”